Thanks Doydie. He does. He's younger than I but almost looks like he could be my dad. Oh...I graduated from college the first time in 73 so have been a nurse for 33 years. And a social worker for 7. And an MS Certified nurse for 3. And a published author for .....well, the first piece was 1968 and the most recent this year. So I know all about copywrite laws and courtesies.

Cherie, it appears you copied this material, exactly (including spelling errors), from the mult-sclerosis website. That is Paul Jones' website. Your copy DOES contain "original intact sentences" since it is copied EXACTLY, save for your inability to copy the graphs and diagrams he has.

See: http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/whatisms.html

Cherie I understand you are a professional as you made clear in your PM to me outlining your extensive background. This website (BT2) could get into big trouble and you could be fined heavily for copying & pasting someone else's material and then claiming you somehow changed it so that "few original intact sentences" remain when this is simply not true. You copied the text as it was, Paul Jones' work, then gave an inaccurate source when asked to give credit to the original author who worked hard to compile and write this information. You then claimed you somehow altered the original to a point where it was your own. It looks to me that you copied it exactly from his work and you didn't change it but tried to take the credit for his work.

I think Paul Jones deserves the credit for writing what he did and it is very important to give a link to your source and acknowledge his authorship. I don't even think you're allowed to copy such a large segment of someone else's work, but that's for you to determine.

This is just a really good example of why it is important to know your source, to provide it (even if it is just a journal publication citation), and to make sure you don't take credit for someone else's hard work. Paul Jones has given so much of himself to the MS community, he deserves recognition for his work and not someone passing it off as their own.

You have just given credit to one who I did not realize should get credit. Thank you.

wannabe, I agree with you. I just read the website you posted and the information the 1st Cherie provided on here, and it is exactly verbatum. I am a CNM originally from the UK, and trained here in the states. During my training here in the states we were told never to cite anyone's references without giving the source.

Is this commonplace? It seems to me that it would be illegal. I would suggest to anyone who is citing anyone's sources to please acknowledge the author. I think there are copyright infringement laws, aren't there?

The other question I have for the nurse Cherie is if you've only been a Nurse for 33 years, how were you able to professionally publish 38 years ago? Something isn't right here. Thanks for clarifying any possible mistakes.

Chris

I never said I was asked to publish PROFESSIONALLY 8 years ago. My publishing was done in "Young America Sings" an anthology of poetry and essays.

And, because "Understanding MS" was something I got via email and later saw in Brain Talk...not cited in either place, I did some digging and discovered that it was taken from the NMSS site (which gives permission for copying materials for educational purposes.).

I haven't yet found it on the NMSS Website but am still looking. I see that Paul Jones didn't give any source either when he quoted the material. In fact, it may be by Paul Jones, for all anyone knows.

When I saw the material here in clinical1's post, I assumed she wrote it. I think most people would assume that unless a source is given.

I don't think anyone knows "all about copyright," especially now that the Internet has created new situations in terms of copyright law.

However, there is another very good reason for always including a source for a quotation, and that is that your readers may want to look at the source, to see what else it might say, to see the context where the quotation occurs.

Sometimes it's a simple matter of noticing a misprint or something that seems to have been omitted in the quotation and wanting to check the original source....

Copying and pasting doesn't guarantee that your quoted material is going to be reproduced in its original form.

I hope I'm not just adding fuel to a fire here, but I for one do feel strongly about the need to cite sources and to make sure that somebody else's words are clearly separated from your own words.

Since it's your thread, Cherie, I would suggest it might be worthwhile for you to delete it and start again.

Just link the source (where you know it exists), and I will add on my information again.

This way we can have a clean start for providing some very valuable information, and put this behind us.

Cherie

It seems the idea that Lady Express is a good one, Cherie. Who knows? Possibly the original text is public domain, yet to move things in a way that's enabling further understanding, a linky-do could take this heat off.

Whomever wrote the article, I wish I'd seen it when I was being tested for MS. It makes me think that the process would have been less frightening. Though my docs have not ruled out MS, I really knew so little about it when I was sent for testing. Such info. that you posted, Cherie, is very helpful :).

All has not been lost here :D.

I am not turning this into a dictatorship. I see that agate also believes that one should always cite sources when giving out factual information that clearly was written by someone other than yourself. I think it's super that you are supplying informational materials to people who may not know where to turn for proper informational sources, however, let us give credit where credit is due.

In your doing so, it implies that the material you wrote was written by you, if I am not mistaken. So, please don't acccuse me of being a moderator or preventing people from learning about their conditions. It appears that agate fully understands my stance on this matter as well. When one writes a paper, aren't we required to use footnotes and a bibliography? Why should it be any different on here. Please give credit where credit is due.

Carry on.

Chris

I would be happy to do this but cannot see a way to do so. Delete is not an option in our edit menu or User CP menu. I am sorry that my attempt to help, educate and enlighten has produced such controversy.

I PM'd wannabe to try and deal with the comments behind the scenes but apparently a Private Message does not mean "Private" here since much of what I said got placed here on the forum. I am not here as an "expert" on MS but as a person living with the illness for nearly 30 years. During that time, I've collected a lot of information. Initially some of that came from brochures and pamphlets. That information, by the guidelines stated in this thread, could not be posted here as there is not an individual author name to credit.

I think the greater evil here is not giving accurate information without giving detailed specifics of who compiled the information. The greater evil is the breaking of a confidence in private messaging and taking private information a person was given in confidence and dumping it on a public forum for all to see. Then having others jump in without knowing the facts or background behind the information that had been privately obtained and turn the whole thing into something that was never meant to be. I feel I have been treated wrongly. I will never trust wannabe again with anything personal.

Now... if anyone knows how to delete this thread so we can start over, I'm listening.